The Citizens Platform on Constitutional Reforms has welcomed the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) call for broader stakeholder participation in the constitutional review process.

The platform says the review must provide meaningful avenues for political parties, civil society organisations and citizens to engage and influence discussions on the proposed constitutional reforms.

Speaking on JoyNews' The Pulse on Thursday, September 17, the Citizens Platform representative Mawuli Dake said the NPP’s position was a step in the right direction, particularly its call for wider consultation on the recommendations being considered.

“I think the NPP press conference was in the right direction. The Citizens Platform has been calling for all stakeholders, including civil society, to actively engage the process,” he said.

Mr Dake said the Citizens Platform agreed with the principle underlying the NPP’s proposal for a Consultative Assembly, although the specific modalities would require further discussion.

“I can see the interest in discussing the Consultative Assembly, all the modules that NPP is proposing for engagement, but I would like to focus on the principle behind their proposal.”

He said the constitutional review was too important to be confined to the government or any single political party because its outcome would affect all Ghanaians.

“It is not an NDC Constitution, it is not an NPP Constitution, but a Constitution for the people of Ghana, which also means that it is also for NDC and NPP and CPP and non-partisans and everybody.”

He said the key issue was therefore to create avenues for all stakeholders to participate in the process and have an opportunity to influence the proposed reforms.

“The principle behind their call for the specific recommendation they are making is just to open avenues for all the stakeholders to find a way to engage the process and influence the process.”

Mr Dake said the Citizens Platform would engage further with the NPP’s specific proposal and determine how it could be incorporated into the broader consultation process.

He noted that the platform had already called for avenues for other political parties and civil society organisations to participate in the review.

He therefore reaffirmed the platform’s support for the principle of broader stakeholder participation while leaving the specific mechanism for achieving that objective open for further discussion.